Businesses supplying wireless products and services to customers typically maintain various distribution channels for the fulfillment of product and service sales and orders. The wireless devices, e.g. handsets, pagers, internet access devices, wireless email devices, and the like, are generally provided by a manufacturing concern, whereas the wireless services, i.e. the actual sending and receiving of radio or other high frequency transmissions for telecommunication with or between the wireless devices, are provided by a wireless service provider or carrier. The end customer, i.e. the ultimate purchaser or user, needs to have both a wireless device and a contract for service with a carrier for the device to be operational.
The distribution of wireless devices and services is complicated by the fact that the manufacturer and carrier are usually different, wholly independent enterprises. A wireless device such as a telephone handset is associated with a unique identifier, such as an electronic serial number (ESN), usually assigned by the device manufacturer. A second unique identifier, such as a telephone number or mobile identification number (MIN), is assigned by the carrier for use in connection with the handset. The MIN is programmed or otherwise loaded into a memory of the handset, either at the distribution center or at the retail outlet. The carrier uses the ESN and the MIN to activate the wireless device for recognition by the carrier's wireless system. The carrier must assign the MIN, and must also enter the manufacturer's ESN of the wireless device into its database so that the switching hardware recognizes transmissions from/to the device as authorized.
A common distribution channel for wireless devices involves distribution centers and independent or third-party dealer agents, such as, for example, large retailers including specialty stores, discounters, office superstores and mass marketers, master dealers and their respective sub-dealers, and independent dealer agents, and the like. Carriers rely on these indirect retailers who ultimately interface is with the customer in retail outlets, by telephone, mail, fax, Internet, e-commerce or other retail interface, to acquire new service subscribers. This indirect channel can account for as much as 45 percent of overall activations.
Wireless handset manufacturers may produce various models and brands of handsets for different wireless operating systems or protocols. The handsets are typically procured, stored, and kitted for shipment in a distribution or fulfillment center. The handsets and kits can be sent to the dealer agents to replenish in-store stocks, or can be shipped directly to an end customer who has already ordered the phone and signed a service contract with a carrier.
The customer purchases these wireless devices and accessories, as well as carrier services through a retail interface such as a retail outlet, or by telephone, facsimile transmission, mail order, internet, other e-commerce and so on. The retail interface may involve carrier store operations and/or third parties such as dealer agents, who operate the retail outlet, or, in the case of telephone, facsimile, mail order, Internet ordering, or other e-commerce, an order processing facility.
Regardless of the product fulfillment method, the relationship between the wireless telecommunication customer and the carrier of wireless services starts with a service contract. The service contract enables the customer's wireless equipment to access a wireless transmission system, enabling the customer to send and receive calls, for example. The service contract also enables the carrier to bill and collect fees for use of the wireless system by the customer.
There are a number of costs borne by the carrier to establish and maintain wireless customers or service subscribers through the dealer agent channel. These include “costs of acquisition” such as commissions, rebates, so-called sales-performance-incentives-for-free or “SPFF's” and other handset subsidies paid to the dealer agents; advertising and promotional expenses; the expense of administration and management of the dealer agents; and so on. Typically, the dealer agent is paid a commission for each activation added to the carrier's service, which can be a flat fee depending on the number of activations or it can take the form of a residual tied to usage or billing for the customer. Handset subsidies can include rebates paid to the customer (and sometimes assigned to the dealer agent), SPFF's paid to dealer agents, or can be discounted prices for handsets sold to the carrier's new customers. A carrier does not have a convenient way of ensuring that subsidized product is used in its service network.
The task of communicating current rate plans, credit requirements and service contracts to each of many dealer agents in a timely fashion can be expensive. There are also costs of servicing the dealer agent channel, such as product warehousing; product returns and other “reverse logistics”; transportation and shipping; order management; commission management; cooperative advertising and marketing management; and the like. In the prior art, these costs are high because most systems are inefficient, and even in the case of automated systems for specific functions or tasks, they are not integrated. For example, most orders are received by phone or fax, and commission management is not done as a part of activation, but is based on separate reports. Even where software is available, the dealer agent typically is required to use separate software applications for the various different business processes associated with the operation of a wireless retail outlet.
The dealer agents are similarly not satisfied with the performance of the prior art distribution channel. Commission calculations by the carriers are frequently inaccurate and payments delayed. Inventory is frequently characterized by insufficient product that is in demand, and excess product that sells too slowly; there is not a satisfactory way to get exactly the right product mix into the store, i.e. there is no good market forecasting tool available to the dealer agents. Too frequently, opportunities for potential cooperative advertising revenues are missed. The life of many dealer agents can also be complicated by offering wireless service by more than one carrier and/or obtaining products from more than one distribution center, so that the in-store procedures are different for each carrier and/or distributor.
As a result of the fragmented and chaotic dealer agent distribution channel characterized by the prior art, it is difficult for carriers to gather and take advantage of point of sale information for spotting market trends, determining marketing demographics or sales forecasting. Roughly 80 percent of the dealer agents have 5 or less points of sale. Moreover, such data are limited to the carrier's own activations and do not include those of other carriers, and may not include all products purchased by the customer. It is even more difficult for the wireless device manufacturers to forecast market trends or determine purchaser demographics because they usually receive only limited or no point of sale information; the manufacturers typically learn of sales only by geographic region.
There exists, therefore, a need for a method and system for managing the dealer agent distribution channel that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.